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Building on your emotional Wellbeing

Stress Matters encourages eventprofs to focus on their emotional wellbeing for 30 minutes every day.

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the team behind De-Stress Fest at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Stress Matters is asking you to commit to 30 minutes per day to improve your wellbeing.

Anyone that has done a mental health awareness course will have heard about their stress container. The idea is that we each have a container that our stressors get poured into every day and when it overflows, we start to experience symptoms of stress.

To stop it overflowing, we create a tap at the bottom where we can release the pressure and this tap is made up of our coping strategies, the things we do that make us feel good.

For us to feel truly well, we incorporate elements from the four pillars of wellbeing – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

Tip 1 – Understand what you value most

For many people, this has been a great time to understand a little more about what you value most. Whether it’s travel, connecting with people, family, personal development, there are certain things in a crisis that will rise up to take our focus. Being clear on this will help you feel more emotionally in control. Knowing your values helps you make decisions and for many of us that are feeling anxious about the future right now.

Tip 2 – Finding your BeDo Balance

As boundaries between work, rest and play have become somewhat blurry recently, trying to find that illusive concept of work life balance has never been more challenging. Let us introduce you to the concept of the Being Doing Approach. By identifying what you value and what makes you feel rested and energised, you can find your own personal balance with no-one able to complain that you spend too much or too little time doing X, Y, Z anymore. You are back in control.

Tip 3 – Write down what’s going on

Not everyone is comfortable writing, and some are even less comfortable if we use the word journal. However, getting things out your head makes us feel better. Whether that’s writing them down, speaking to someone or even just talking them through out loud to yourself, it’s amazing how things sound different when they’re out of your head. We have all gone through a lot of change recently and change can be unsettling. Being able to look back at how you felt a week ago is helpful as we can see how things move forward and we overcome the obstacles that are in our way.

Tip 4 – Being kind

Whether you grow or buy them, sending flowers – or a plant - to someone to show how much you care is a great way to boost our own personal wellbeing. Flowers have a positive effect on mood. Studies have shown that recipients feel less depressed, anxious, and agitated after receiving them. The sense of purpose we can experience from making someone else happy can give us the motivation to keep going and kindness is contagious. Kindness is the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, so if it isn’t sending flowers, think of another way you can show kindness to somebody, and remember to be kind to yourself. Take each day one at a time.

Tip 5: Feel calm and in control

We are not in control of the situation, what other people think or the decisions made on our behalves, which is testing for our industry. However, we are in control of ourselves and how we react to situations and our feelings. Once we understand that things feel much more manageable. Certain plants and essential oils, have calming and relaxing properties such as lavender, bergamot, neroli that will help the mind relax and restore calm. Walking amongst trees also helps, as they release phytoncides which boost the immune system and this could soon be prescribed on the NHS.

Need an industry Buddy to talk to? The Buddies Matter scheme created by Stress Matters will match you up with a peer in the industry who you can talk to on a regular basis. All you need to do is fill out the form and you’ll be matched with a like-minded person who’s happy to listen.

If you need to talk to someone about your mental health, the events and hospitality industry support line created by Stress Matters is here to help. A qualified Mental Health First Aider is on hand from 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday on 07841 362 111.